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‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

theguardian.com

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Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#51

Post by fit2rule »

reedf1 wrote: post #33
pjc50 wrote: post #5

Yes. The culture war is to a great extent a US import. The US is extremely polarised, possibly uniquely so for a country with a single national language and mostly-shared ethnic background (compare Belgium, which is highly polarised but along language lines). The UK has its own natural fragmentation lines (north/south, class system, four nations, catholic/protestant) but those are not the lines on which the culture w…

As a twenty-something who grew up in Texas but has spent my adult life learning and working in the UK - I really disagree with calling any large cultural ideas as "US imports". The perception from the UK is that the US is much more polarised than it actually is - and from my perception the UK is even more polarised, but just refuses to believe it. I think this is because minority populations are so much smaller in th…

>Texas

+

>the US is much more polarised than it actually is

== not representative of the US. Travel more.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#52

Post by jacobion »

zozbot234 wrote: post #22
vidarh wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The proportion in the UK who are any kind of Marxist is vanishingly small. The extremist pushing "culture wars" do like to argue it's about "Marxist ideology", but what they paint as Marxist rarely has anything whatsoever to do with Marxism. EDIT: It's fascinating to see the votes on this change without anyone even trying to make an argument to justify the claim it has to do with Marxism. I'd love to see one of those…

Jeremy Corbyn has praised Karl Marx as "a great economist", FWIW.

Karl Marx WAS a great economist. Is this something one is no longer allowed to say without being smeared as an extremist?

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#53

Post by arethuza »

reedf1 wrote: post #33
pjc50 wrote: post #5

Yes. The culture war is to a great extent a US import. The US is extremely polarised, possibly uniquely so for a country with a single national language and mostly-shared ethnic background (compare Belgium, which is highly polarised but along language lines). The UK has its own natural fragmentation lines (north/south, class system, four nations, catholic/protestant) but those are not the lines on which the culture w…

As a twenty-something who grew up in Texas but has spent my adult life learning and working in the UK - I really disagree with calling any large cultural ideas as "US imports". The perception from the UK is that the US is much more polarised than it actually is - and from my perception the UK is even more polarised, but just refuses to believe it. I think this is because minority populations are so much smaller in th…

If anyone thinks that racism at all levels isn't a problem I can strongly suggest reading about the Windrush scandal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal

I'm in the middle of a reading a book about it at the moment and to say I am appalled by how these people were treated is an understatement.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#54

Post by speeder »

cabraca wrote: post #34
rayiner wrote: post #4

I like the More in Common Project. But it overlooks the disproportionate representation of the extremists in our institutions. This happened at my alma matter earlier this year: https://freebeacon.com/campus/northwestern-law-administrator... . They also voted to abandon entrance exams at my magnet high school: https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4979 It’s not comforting to know that only a tiny minority of people a…

I know those diversity sessions... They claim everyone who is white or passing as white is racist. I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family. Literally hitler, i know. A colleague got fired because he wouldn't confess and left the session. So even if that Dean said he is a racist, he's…

This is basically a Chinese struggle session.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#55

Post by charlchi »

cabraca wrote: post #34
rayiner wrote: post #4

I like the More in Common Project. But it overlooks the disproportionate representation of the extremists in our institutions. This happened at my alma matter earlier this year: https://freebeacon.com/campus/northwestern-law-administrator... . They also voted to abandon entrance exams at my magnet high school: https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4979 It’s not comforting to know that only a tiny minority of people a…

I know those diversity sessions... They claim everyone who is white or passing as white is racist. I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family. Literally hitler, i know. A colleague got fired because he wouldn't confess and left the session. So even if that Dean said he is a racist, he's…

> I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family.

It's almost like making generalisations about people's actions only by their skin colour or ethnic background is somehow wrong. Weird to think that basically anyone studying social science or humanities is being taught this stuff and that it is at this point basically accepted as fact.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#56

Post by another-dave »

I think the main culprit exacerbating this is the main stream media.

"Vox pops" have formed part of filling air-time or column inches for a long while, but this is largely replaced now by journalists looking at Twitter and either a) using that as a stand-in for 'this is what the public think' or b) making it the story itself. Social media is no longer just "second screen" below-the-line commenting on events, it's helping to shape what becomes a story.

I think a lot of it is probably a symptom of trimmed budgets and the 24hr news cycle — social media is in easy reach and available at whatever point you're writing your article.

Unfortunately, I don't think we can roll back on the constant need for more 'breaking news', but would be interesting if a newspaper were to take an editorial stance that it won't quote/embed any tweets or social posts in their articles.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#57

Post by goatinaboat »

arethuza wrote: post #41
goatinaboat wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost any war is fought by a tiny minority, which is backed by large majority. While technically true, in a real war the “tiny minority” (the military) don’t choose when or where or why to fight, that is done by the “large majority”, the voters electing a government.

"don’t choose when or where or why to fight" The UK has been in a number of wars since I've been able to vote - I don't recall being asked to vote on any one of them? Or indeed the wars in question being part of the manifesto for any party at any election?

Are you asserting that the British military picks its own wars? Because that’s the quote you replied to.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#58

Post by pvaldes »

cabraca wrote: post #34
rayiner wrote: post #4

I like the More in Common Project. But it overlooks the disproportionate representation of the extremists in our institutions. This happened at my alma matter earlier this year: https://freebeacon.com/campus/northwestern-law-administrator... . They also voted to abandon entrance exams at my magnet high school: https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=4979 It’s not comforting to know that only a tiny minority of people a…

I know those diversity sessions... They claim everyone who is white or passing as white is racist. I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family. Literally hitler, i know. A colleague got fired because he wouldn't confess and left the session. So even if that Dean said he is a racist, he's…

> I had to "confess" that I'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career.

So, basically inquisitor wannabees and pseudoscience cultists. Your colleague dodged a bullet.

The idea that claiming that you are racist makes you not racist is totally gaga, random, and based in magical thinking, not in science. It only helps to hide in plain sight the real racists making much easier to admit it for everybody.

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#59

Post by [deleted] »

zozbot234 wrote: post #42
cabraca wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know those diversity sessions... They claim everyone who is white or passing as white is racist. I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family. Literally hitler, i know. A colleague got fired because he wouldn't confess and left the session. So even if that Dean said he is a racist, he's…

Is there any real proof that these diversity sessions actually help people work in diverse environments? The way you describe this, it reads like a really, really weird cargo cult where just confessing to one's supposed racism will somehow make you more open to people of differing backgrounds. How exactly does this help?

[deleted]

Re: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

#60

Post by donohoe »

zozbot234 wrote: post #16
pjc50 wrote: post #5

Yes. The culture war is to a great extent a US import. The US is extremely polarised, possibly uniquely so for a country with a single national language and mostly-shared ethnic background (compare Belgium, which is highly polarised but along language lines). The UK has its own natural fragmentation lines (north/south, class system, four nations, catholic/protestant) but those are not the lines on which the culture w…

The oversensitivity over race and cultural heritage in the U.S. is at a point where talking about having a "shared ethnic background" might well be a stretch. It's hard to see the difference compared to a place like Belgium, although the latter has been dealing with it for longer, and found unique ways to cope with their situation. The race-based division in the U.S. also heavily reinforces differences in culture tha…

"oversensitivity over race"?

To be clear, this isn't a difference of culture we're talking about. We're talking about people who routinely get murdered and harassed by police, disenfranchised, paid less ins salary, and excluded from many professional roles by default.

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